Health careers

When thinking about pharmaceutical sales, a person's mind might jump immediately to a company selling one particular drug to doctors. But there's more to pharmaceutical reps than selling pills. In fact, companies like Hospira sell many different injectable drugs to many different areas in hospitals....

Nurses are everywhere, from doctors' offices to hospitals and in the military. But the nurse in most young people's lives is their school nurse. Stephanie Robinson, the registered nurse at Proviso Mathematics and Science Academy, has been a nurse for 30 years. She started out at the Cook Country...

As the number of aging baby boomers continues to grow, so does the need for health care. To meet demand, colleges and universities across the country have to expand enrollment in their health-related programs, specifically nursing care. They're having a hard time doing that. According to the American...

If you're looking for a career in dental health that offers a blend of science and art, consider the field of dental laboratory technology. Dental laboratory technicians make and repair orthodontic devices such as dentures, bridges, crowns and braces. They use precision instruments and equipment,...

More than 25 years ago, an announcement was made that a doctor from the National Cancer Institute had isolated the virus that caused acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS. That same announcement said that a vaccine for AIDS would be available for testing before the 1990s. Here we are today....

In every profession, there are those who pursue advanced education and training to achieve top-level expertise. Nurse practitioner (NP) is the title given to nurses who attain such proficiency in their field. Recent studies by PayScale.com show that the top-end salary for NPs can exceed $93,000...

The work of the modern day social worker has been muddied through various facets, one of those being television. TV shows usually portray social workers as middle-aged, white women who are taking care of the kids by day and fighting for community justice at night. In reality, the field of social...

Laced into her sneakers, Jennifer Sullivan hits the ground running at 6:30 a.m. four days a week. She's not a corporate soldier sweating out the coffee and bagel she'll eat at her desk as her workday begins. She is making rounds at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, assessing patients who have recently...

Anyone familiar with medical dramas on television see the pressure-soaked world of perioperative nurses, or operating room nurses, on a weekly basis. "They're the ones who get yelled at by the doctors for dropping something or not moving fast enough," says Ronetta Thompson, who spent 14 years as...